Enter Vokoun, who dropped some knowledge on Thursday after his morning skate. He talked a lot about Fleury and the nature of his profession, and it was good.

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"It's easy to blame one person. As a goalie, I know firsthand how hard it is. And sometimes, even when you do the right things, things just don't go your way. And that's normal as anything in life. I feel really bad for him. As a goalie especially—I think we are good friends. But for me, like I said, I have (a) job to do. We just need to get through this. We deal with whatever happens after it happens. I don't even think about that. For me, it's 'make sure I stop the first shot,' I and go from there.

"Some of those goals were tough breaks. I thought he looked good—he wasn't guessing, it wasn't like he was getting beat on straight shots. ... He didn't look like he was nervous or anything like that. I told him, I think he look good. The puck went in. Sometimes, that's gonna happen. Some of the games I went in, I feel the best—and ended up being pulled. Some games, you're in the warmup and like, 'Oh my god, I'm not able to stop anything,' and you get a shutout.

"It's funny the way that things work sometimes for goalies. The toughest part is there's nobody to help you. If the pucks go in, defense or forwards—they always have the luxury of hoping, 'Oh, maybe the defense or the goalie get it.' We don't. People who never were in that situation can't even imagine how hard it is mentally, so I can definitely relate and feel what he feels.

"And like I said, he's definitely not the reason we are where we are. We didn't play well, and we just didn't play our game. That's the truth."